Towing

[crash68]

After buying and replacing one 8 speed in my truck,

You need to put a disclaimer on why you replaced the transmission. Compared to the typical owner on this forum your transmission undergoes getting slammed by a Mack truck on acceleration and if I remember correctly you learned the transmission torque management really helps keep the internals where they belong... LOL

 

[rmill]

That's the problem. The specifications have exceeded real world results. Pulling a 10,000 lb trailer with a 1/2 ton is miserable. People think "oh, my truck is rated for 12,000 lbs and 1500 lbs of payload". Well, sure, but if you try to tow something 12,000 lbs you've exceeded your payload, and if you come close to your payload the truck is miserable or dangerous to drive. Then we get in to length and height, which aren't factored in to their numbers. A 30'+ travel trailer is going to push that 1/2 ton around like it's *****.

Hate when people say "can't even tell it's back there".....b.s. Stay in your lane with 30+ mph cross winds.

Straw man argument top to bottom. Nobody with a 1500 is pulling a 10k trailer as you know you run out of payload at 7k to 8k. Myself and others here pull a 7k trailer with zero problems with a good WDH, including pulling in wind. But if its 30+ winds anyone with any common sense wouldn't be pulling anything they would be parked.

 

[Wild one]

You need to put a disclaimer on why you replaced the transmission. Compared to the typical owner on this forum your transmission undergoes getting slammed by a Mack truck on acceleration and if I remember correctly you learned the transmission torque management really helps keep the internals where they belong... LOL

Yea we learned the hard way,not to keep reducing torque management.The truck kept getting faster everytime we pulled a bit of torque management out of it,up till the tranny said f!uck you guys,lol.But that was back in the early days of tuning the 8 speeds before anybody had figured out,you need to add more torque management,when you throw more power at the 8 speed,it was a costly learning curve,lol

 

[Riccochet]

Straw man argument top to bottom. Nobody with a 1500 is pulling a 10k trailer as you know you run out of payload at 7k to 8k. Myself and others here pull a 7k trailer with zero problems with a good WDH, including pulling in wind. But if its 30+ winds anyone with any common sense wouldn't be pulling anything they would be parked.

You must not frequent RV parks. I'd say at least 60% of the people towing an RV are overloaded. Mostly due to being suckered by RV sales people saying "heck yeah your 1/2 ton can tow it!" because it's not their problem once it leaves the lot.

And then they come on sites like this asking "how can I make my truck tow this beast of a trailer better?"

3/4 ton owners are the worst offenders. Towing massive 5th wheels where they're 1000+ lbs over payload, slapping some airbags on it and calling it good .... because it's a "deezul".

 

[CalDad14]

2017 Ram 1500 SLT, 5.7, 6-speed, 392gears, 4×4, CC, short bed. Bone stock. Seats six. Nothing fancy, no power seats, no heated seats, no sliding back window, no cd player. Fanciest thing my truck has are the side mirror defrosters! All that extra trim adds to your payload = less you can tow.

Max tow; 10,160lbs
Payload; 1240lbs

I could tow 10,000lbs, but I would have to completely empty my bed of all it's items, nor could I have any passengers! I wouldn't try, unless it was some type of emergency.

Two summers ago we rented a small R-Pod camper trailer, <4000lbs. B/c we rented the camper, we picked it up on our way out of town. So the bed of the truck was loaded, I mean loaded! Once rigged up, we did move some from the bed of the truck into the camper. Not much, but some.

I estimate I was right on the edge, possibly 50 - 100 lbs over my payload. Maybe even more?!? Wish I had time to hit the scales. W/a WDH, she towed great. I was really pleased w/it's performance. Fastest I ever hit was 70mph, and that was only to gain some momentum to climb hills.

One thing I will say, the truck rarely downshifted. Even on some good sized hills. W/the 6-speed, as soon as I engage tow/haul it locks out 6th gear. It was middle of summer, super hot. Encountered some strong crosswinds. Ran AC the whole trip. But, I do turn the AC off prior to pulling any hills. I got a touch over 13 mpg's, which I was happy with. Whenever we do it again, I will definitely p/u trailer first so I don't have to haul so much. Much easier to tow your weight as opposed to hauling it.

My $.02!

 

[Tulecreeper]

Perhaps because I remember when a half-ton pickup meant 1000 pounds, some of the manufacturers specifications arbitrarily comes from the marketing departments. To some extent, beyond what an engineer may consider to be the "max," there has been a war between the manufacturers on advertising better numbers. Ford in particular has kept upping their towing specifications over time in swift reaction to Ram or GM publishing a better spec., and sometimes without changing any mechanical components. In reality its difficult to determine what the actual mechanical limit might be.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, factory dual exhaust, 18” wheels. Build Date: 3 June 2018. Now at 94694 miles.

Yes, but that was back when all half-ton trucks were pretty much the same no matter the manufacturer. Ford, GM, and Dodge were the only games in town and none of them offered any kind of option packages that interfered with cargo capacity. All of the half-tons were V-8 gassers, all of them were long bed, and none of them had anything other than a regular cab. When that all changed it hugely affected cargo capacity.